1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an inbed truck spoiler for reducing drag in pickup trucks.
2. State of the Art
Sales of the largest pickup trucks have been soaring for several years in the United States. This has led to Japanese automakers rushing into the market, now one of the most profitable parts of the business and always dominated by the Big Three U.S. car makers. Once utilitarian vehicles used exclusively for work, pickup trucks are getting bigger, roomier, more powerful and showier in almost every way. Passenger cabs with two rows of seats, a minority a decade ago, are now the norm. The biggest pickups, which made up just 8.6 percent of new vehicles in the United States in 1990, now account for 13.2 percent. Sales of compact pickups have shrunk to less than 5 percent of the market. The allure of the pickup market for the auto industry is clear: The industry sold two to two-and-a-half times as many full-size pickups as it did full-size SUV's last year. Last year, Ford's F-Series pickup, the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the United States, contributed $2.4 billion of net income to Ford Motor. Toyota Motor is the only car maker based outside the United States that sells a full-size pickup, the Tundra, in the U.S. market. When sales were booming in 2001, it sold more than 100,000 Tundras, compared with Ford's sales of more than 900,000 F-Series trucks. General Motors sold more than 700,000 Chevrolet Silverados, the second-best-selling vehicle in the country, and more than 200,000 GMC Sierras, while Dodge, a brand of DaimlerChrysler, sold close to 350,000 Ram pickups. This year, GM started selling a luxury pickup with a convertible top, the Chevrolet SSR, which starts above $40,000. Nissan Motor introduced its first full-size pickup, the voluminous Titan, last year. Although pickup trucks have experienced a large upsurge in popularity, a major drawback to owning a pickup truck is the fuel efficiency. The fuel efficiency of the average pickup has fallen from as high as 19.2 miles a gallon in the 1987 model year to 16.8 miles a gallon in 2004 (an average car gets 24.8).
Currently there are several patents offering inventions that attempt to solve the fuel efficiency problems of the average pickup trucks. Several U.S. patents, i.e. U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,843 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,806, describe spoilers which attach to the cab of a pickup truck in order to reduce drag on the vehicle and increase the fuel efficiency of the truck. These spoilers, however, alter the look of the truck significantly. They are also permanently attached to the vehicle and therefore cannot be removed by the truck owner without damaging the truck.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,263 describes a spoiler which fits into the bed of the pickup truck up against the tailgate in an attempt to direct airflow out of the truck bed thereby reducing the drag on the tailgate and increasing the fuel efficiency. This spoiler, however, must be placed firmly up against the tailgate of the truck and therefore does not allow for alteration of the position of the spoiler in case of cargo that must be in a certain position in the truck bed. Though, removable, this spoiler also does not collapse in order to allow large cargo to be placed in the truck bed. Instead, the spoiler must be removed from the vehicle and then reinstalled once the cargo has been removed. Further, the spoiler disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,263 application also does not allow for automatic alteration of the angle of the spoiler.
Accordingly, what is needed is a spoiler for a pickup truck which increases the fuel efficiency of the truck without altering the appearance of the vehicle and which collapses in order to allow large cargo to be placed in the truck without the necessity of removing and then reinstalling the spoiler. A spoiler that can be automatically adjusted is also desirable for ease of use.